When We Were Young
by NCIS-Addict-4427
Summary: Things were so much simpler when we were young. Ethan's & Lena's POV. Based on the song "When We Were Young" by The Summer Set. Heavy spoilers for beautiful Redemption, some for Beautiful Chaos...eh, just read the series before reading this. Similar to my Castle story "Katie's Playlist." If you want this to continue, I may.


**This is a story based on the song "When We Were Young" by The Summer Set. A lot of liberties were taken, but I think it came out nicely. Enjoy!**

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When we were young.

Oh, things seemed so much simpler back then.

Did she remember when we fell in love in the garden at Greenbrier? After I followed her there?

I kicked around the dirt in Perpetual Peace as a walked the long way from Aunt Prue's back to Wate's Landing, where I knew my mom would be waiting. It wasn't supposed to be this way. How could it possibly have had to be this way?

As happy as I was to be with my mom, I couldn't go one second without thinking about Lena, about how heartbroken she must be. Because now, we can't speak, we can't even Kelt. I'm there, but I'm not. Because she has no idea. Why couldn't things go back to the way they were when we were young?

Young forever, back then. We thought we had the word at our feet.

And then it crumbled beneath us with that one fateful jump from the water tower in Summerville.

I reached Wate's Landing, with the door that looked like my mom's headstone, but I couldn't go inside just yet. I sat down on the porch and dropped my head into my hands. How could something so glorious and perfect go so horribly, horribly wrong?

I thought back to when we would listen to Link's band, the Holy Rollers, and laugh at how bad they actually were. I thought about how we would make out until I felt like I was going to explode. Of course Lena was the one who broke us apart, seeing as the pain just made me seek her out with even more urgency. I chuckled a bit; Lena was always the practical one in this relationship. Boy, did we think we were cool.

I couldn't stand sitting around Perpetual Peace with all its houses with gravestone-stores and people I hadn't seen since I was hardly tall enough to see over the pews at church. I had to go see Lena.

_Ducite me domum._

_Ut meminissem,_

_Ut in memoria tenear._

_Carry me home._

_To remember,_

_and be remembered. _

When I opened my eyes, I was standing in front of Ravenwood Manor. I quietly slipped into the house, unnoticed by Macon, who was reading a newspaper by the fireplace, or Boo Radley, who laid at his feet. Boo wasn't quite as good at seeing ghosts as Lucille Ball was.

Before I knew it, I was up in Lena's room, suitcases packed and all. She was there, lying in her bed, just staring at the ceiling, and one look at her face told me she'd been crying. My heart broke- well, as much as it could, for a dead person. All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her, whisper in her ear that I was there, that I loved her, but when I tried, I may have well been grasping at air.

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I couldn't believe after all we'd been through, I lost Ethan. I honestly thought we could survive anything.

I thought about all the times we drove around in the hearse, and Ethan didn't care that the whole town thought it was weird; When we went to the movies and sat all the way in the back, though we weren't planning on doing _that_.

I remembered the first time we actually met met, when he almost ran me down in the middle of Route 9. We got into that huge fight, and he insisted he drive me home. I didn't want him to. But how glad I am that he did. I remembered showing up at his house in my pajamas, and us laying out on his lawn until he had to go because Amma would have a heart attack if she found out. How many times did we just lay in the grass at Greenbrier, talking and laughing and kissing, thinking that we had all the time in the world? Looking back, how did we ever think we would be able to stay in that happy, blissful bubble?

We were young and reckless, dumb and fearless. We thought we could handle anything the world or the order or the far keep could throw at us. Until the Lilum demanded the one who is two.

I hadn't written anything, except in my head, since Ethan...I can't even bear to think it. But somehow, this one just came out. As I stared at the ceiling, I saw my familiar handwriting start to scrawl across it in black sharpie:

_I never thought that we'd surrender_

_When I was yours and you were mine_

_Never regret, no, we learned how to love_

_When we were young and still together_

_No, there was nothing left to prove_

_Never regret, no, we learned how to love_

_When we were young. _

That wasn't my usual poetry. I wasn't sure where it came from, or why that ended up plastered across my while, while none of the others had. But it was true. How I wished that it wasn't. The tears started falling in full force again.

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All of a sudden, words started being scrawled across the ceiling. Lena looked as confused as I was at the words, because it wasn't like anything she had ever written before. But it hurt to look at.

_When we were young. _

It seemed like a common theme recently.

Then she started crying again, and I just had to watch helplessly. Losing a first love is hard enough, without the whole dying-to-save-the-world thing. I had to do something to show her I was there, anything.

The necklace. She was still wearing it. I reached for it, and tugged as hard as I could. It barely moved, and I was already exhausted, but she noticed.

"Ethan?"

I gave it another tug. I saw her eyes light up. "You're here?" Another tug. And I smile graced her lips. What I'd do to be able to kiss those lips again.

"I knew you weren't gone!" She said, not really sure what to do with herself or where to even look, given as she wasn't able to see the person she was talking to. They don't exactly teach the etiquette for this kinda stuff at cotillion, even if Lena had bothered to join Savannah Snow and Emily Asher and their fluffy Gatlin Peach dresses from Little Miss.

"I love you, Ethan. And I will find a way to bring you back to me!" If sheer will power could bring something into being, it definitely would've happened here. I'm glad at least one of us hasn't given up.

"I sure hope so. I love you, Lena. I always will."

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